Options Page, Environment Node Properties

Article
11/16/2012

Following is a description of the pages (or properties collections) associated with the Environment category, DTE.Properties("Environment", <Property Page>). The title of each subsection is the call to access the Properties collection, and the table in each sub-section lists the properties found in the collection.

General

DTE.Properties("Environment", "General")

Property Item Name	Value	Description
OnStartup	Get/Set (vsStartup)	Determines the environment's behavior on startup, whether to show the home page, the New Project dialog box, the Open Project dialog box, the last solution, and so forth.
ShowStatusBar	Get/Set (Boolean)	Determines whether the status bar is visible.
WindowMenuContainsNItems	Get/Set (Short)	Determines how document windows are contained at the bottom of the Windows menu.
MRUListContainsNItems	Get/Set (Short)	Determines how many files display in the "Most Recently Used" submenu.
Animations	Get/Set (Boolean)	Determines whether the integrated development environment (IDE) uses animation in the status bar.
AnimationSpeed	Get/Set (Boolean)	Determines the speed of animations in the status bar.
ShowCommandWindowCompletion	Get/Set (Boolean)	Determines whether the Command window displays completion UI as you type.
FindReplaceShowMessageBoxes	Get/Set (Boolean)	Determines whether various Find and Replace dialog boxes are displayed, such as whether or not to display the dialog box warning that a search passed the starting point.
FindReplaceInitializeFromEditor	Get/Set (Boolean)	Determines whether initiating a search from the Find dialog box seeds the search pattern from the active document's insertion point location, or with the last pattern searched for in the IDE.

Documents

DTE.Properties("Environment", "Documents")

Property Item Name	Value	Description
ReuseSavedActiveDocWindow	Get/Set (Boolean)	Determines whether opening a new file reuses the current document window if the current document is saved. false means always open a new document window for each document opened.
DetectFileChangesOutsideIDE	Get/Set (Boolean)	Determines whether the environment automatically reloads files opened in the IDE when the operating system notifies the IDE that the files have been modified on disk.
AutoloadExternalChanges	Get/Set (Boolean)	Determines whether detected external modifications to open documents automatically reload the modified file if the open document is not modified. If the open document is modified and this property is true, then the IDE prompts as if this property were false.
InitializeOpenFileFromCurrentDocument	Get/Set (Boolean)	Determines whether the OpenFile command seeds the directory and file name from the last active document, or from the last place you opened a file.
MiscFilesProjectSavesLastNItems	Get/Set (Short)	Determines how many files the Miscellaneous Files project records. As a result, you can see what you most recently had open as a miscellaneous file on disk when you next use the IDE.

Help

DTE.Properties("Environment", "Help")

Property Item Name	Value	Description
Language	Get/Set (String)	Contains the LCID of the language, such as 1033 for English.
Collection	Get/Set (String)	The name of the Help collection to use for Visual Studio Help, such as, ms-help://msdnvs.
External	Get/Set (Boolean)	Determines whether or not to view Help outside the Visual Studio IDE.

Keyboard

DTE.Properties("Environment", "Keyboard")

Property Item Name	Value	Description
Scheme	Get/Set (String)	Returns a string containing the full path of the .vsk file that is loaded, or "[default settings]" if no .vsk file is loaded.

Projects and Solution

DTE.Properties("Environment", "ProjectsAndSolution")

Property Item Name	Value	Description
OnRunOrPreview	Get/Set (String)	Determines whether the IDE saves everything before previewing or running a built project.
ProjectsLocation	Get/Set (String)	Determines the default directory where the Add Project dialog box saves new projects.
ShowOutputWindowBeforeBuild	Get/Set (Boolean)	Determines whether starting a build displays the Output window.
ShowTaskListAfterBuild	Get/Set (Boolean)	Determines whether an unsuccessful build operation displays the Task List when the build is done.
TrackFileSelectionInExplorer	Get/Set (String)	Determines whether the current item is tracked in Solution Explorer.
AlwaysShowSolutionNode	Get/Set (String)	Determines whether the solution node is displayed.
OnlySaveStartupProjectsAndDependencies	Get/Set (String)	Determines whether save operations are limited to startup projects and their dependent files.
ShowAdvancedBuildConfigurations	Get/Set (String)	Determines whether advanced build configurations are displayed.
ConcurrentBuilds	Get/Set (String)	Determines the maximum number of parallel project builds that can occur.
SaveNewProjects	Get/Set (String)	Determines whether new projects are automatically saved after being created.

TaskList

DTE.Properties("Environment", "TaskList")

Property Item Name	Value	Description
ConfirmTaskDeletion	Boolean	Determines whether a confirmation box displays when deleting tasks from the Task List.
UserTaskWarning	Boolean	Determines whether you are warned when adding a user task that will not be shown.
CommentTokens	SafeArray	Returns a SafeArray of comment token values. Each has the fields, Name (string) and Priority (vsTaskPriority, High, Medium, or Low).

Web Browser

DTE.Properties("Environment", "WebBrowser")

Property Item Name	Value	Description
UseDefaultHomePage	Boolean	Determines whether or not to use the default home page.
HomePage	String	Represents the home page URL.
UseDefaultSearchPage	Boolean	Determines whether or not to use the default search page.
SearchPage	String	Represents the search page URL.
ViewSourceIn	Enum	vsBrowserViewSource (Source, Design, External).
ViewSourceExternalProgram	String	The path of the external source viewer.